Hoodline, October 2, 2016 By Shane Downing.

This is the most recent in a series on what it takes to solve an obvious problem in San Francisco. Of note are the large number of vocal commenters showing open contempt for bike riders on the streets and ignorance of the issue of City Transportation. These people make the case that bike riders need protections and the process needs to be depoliticized.

Earlier this year Shane Downing wrote:

Biking her daughter to and from school was nothing new for Rachel Masters. She did it about three days a week on a heavy electric bike—until this April, when the pair took a nasty spill on 17th Street during one of their commutes.

“My daughter and I were biking to the Earth Day celebration at her school on Dolores when our bike hit the Muni tracks on the southwest corner of Church and 17th,” Masters said. “We came crashing down.”

Masters’ left shoulder was broken in the fall. Fortunately, a pair of bystanders stepped in to call her husband, and helped her get her daughter out of her car seat. While she’s thankful for the bike seat and helmet that allowed her daughter to walk away from the accident unscathed, “I didn’t want our daughter to go through the trauma of being in an ambulance and seeing me hurt,” she said.

Masters’ husband drove her to the emergency room after the crash, which caused her to miss a week of work. She had to wear a shoulder immobilizer for seven weeks, and now has a frozen shoulder. “I will be in physical therapy for at least a year,” she said.

Masters had no idea that other people had also been hurt on the 17th Street Muni tracks, until she saw a recent post on Nextdoor. “I thought it was just something that happened to me and was bad luck,” said Masters. “Now I see that this is a larger trend.” (Click here to continue reading…)